Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Homily
Hom′i-ly
,Noun.
pl.
Homilies
(#)
. [LL.
homilia
, Gr. [GREEK] communion, assembly, converse, sermon, fr. [GREEK] an assembly, fr. [GREEK] same; cf. [GREEK] together, and [GREEK] crowd, cf. [GREEK] to press: cf. F. homélie
. See Same
.] 1.
A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse.
Shak.
2.
A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral point, or on the conduct of life.
As I have heard my father
Deal out in his long
Deal out in his long
homilies
. Byron.
Book of Homilies
. A collection of authorized, printed sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in the reign of Elizabeth; – both books being certified to contain a “godly and wholesome doctrine.”
Webster 1828 Edition
Homily
HOM'ILY
,Noun.
A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; or a plain, familiar discourse on some subject of religion, such as an instructor would deliver to his pupils, or a father to his children.